Something in Common
by Darthlane
Summary: Kai drives Tenzin too far, and it may cost him everything. I do not own Legend of Korra. Would be cool if i did though.
**Position: Earthbender**

 **Prompts:**

 **Kai**

" **You've got a friend in me"**

 **Black and white**

 **Word count: 1819**

Something in Common

"KAAAAAIIIIIIII!"

Kai leapt up, flying through the air like only an Airbender could. A blast of air flew by where he had been standing before. Kai grimaced. Like always, his master was deadly accurate. Just a little late this time.

Tenzin was fuming. He had been overseeing the sparring matches his pupils had been doing, and had been looking closely at Kai's skirmish with Ikki. Ikki had been absolutely destroying Kai, just like always when they were paired up. Kai had gotten tired of this routine, and even though he knew he had no chance of winning against her he wondered if he couldn't find some other way to gain a victory.

So he chose the prank path.

He had noticed the mud puddle on the ground when Ikki had knocked him over for the millionth time, and a grin appeared on his face. Tenzin was standing a few feet beyond the puddle, too focused on the training to notice what was about to happen to him. With a whoosh of air, the oblivious Airbending master was plastered head to toe in mud.

Kai laughed hard, almost doubling over. It took him a moment to notice that no one else was laughing with him. He quickly stopped, noticing that everyone else had a look of suspense and for some even fear on their faces. Everyone except one.

At first Kai couldn't see Tenzin's expression. Then the bald man's eyes opened and his mouth appeared out of the dark goop. His features contorted into an expression so fearsome and scary that the author was unable to properly describe it.

And so Kai ran.

He leapt through the door of the temple that the Air Nation had been calling home ever since Tenzin had organized them. He had to push past people, squeezing through the small crowd of acolytes to escape his fate. He didn't need to look behind him to know that Tenzin was hot on his tail.

He escaped through one of the bedrooms, using his bending to fling pillows and blankets behind him at the door that Tenzin would be appearing in any moment. He heard a shocked cry, so he assumed that they had hit their mark. He smirked as he slipped through the opposite door. He was lucky that all of the rooms in this place have two doors. It was a weird design choice by those Airbenders hundreds of years ago. But Kai didn't mind, he found it pretty useful.

In the next hallway, there wasn't room to run through. The way was blocked by Bolin and some other Airbender, a new guy that Kai hadn't learned the name of yet. Even now, years after Harmonic Convergence, they were still discovering new Airbenders.

Kai froze for a moment. His path was blocked, and Tenzin would catch him in a moment if he didn't get out of here. But he smiled his signature cocky grin.

A blocked path wasn't an issue for an Airbender.

With the aid of his Airbending he leapt over the pair of people, causing Bolin to jump back in surprise. "Kai! What the hell?"

Kai didn't bother to answer his friend, and just kept running. Behind him he heard Bolin let out a girlish shriek, then heard, "Oh never mind, that was just Tenzin. I thought it was a swamp monster at first! Hey Tenzin, why are you wearing mud?"

"KAI!" Tenzin roared, as if that was an answer to Bolin's question. Kai didn't dare look back.

A small part of him told him that he should stop here, and face the consequences. That continuing to run would only make things much worse for him. Kai considered the idea for half a heartbeat, then tossed it away. He was an Airbender, so he had to prove he could evade trouble. Trouble like an angry Tenzin.

Kai escaped into the kitchens, running past one of the part-time cooks. He was horrified to find that he had made a major mistake, and had picked a room with only one exit. One in which Tenzin now filled.

Kai's mind buzzed, trying to think of any way to get out of this situation. Tenzin apparently didn't want to give him the chance to think because he fired a powerful gust of wind with blinding speed at Kai. Desperate, Kai lifted the closest thing to him to use as a shield.

There was an explosion of white and Kai was thrown back into the hard stone wall. He slumped to the ground, no longer in control of his body. After a few moments of breathing, he was back to normal enough to look up and see Tenzin standing above him.

Flour, Kai realized. It had been flour that had exploded in his face. A glance told him that he was covered in the stuff. He was white as a ghost, while Tenzin was as black as mud. Kai spat some flour out of his mouth. "You would think it would taste more like bread, right?" he commented.

Tenzin wasn't in the joking mood, Kai realized. His heart sunk. He was going to be in big trouble. But even worse, he would be in trouble with Jinora. She would be disappointed in him. He didn't want that at all. He wanted to show her that he wasn't the same kid, that he could be counted on. He just got carried away sometimes with his fun. That's all this was.

But she wouldn't believe that. She could see through his excuses.

"Oh Spirits!" the cook wailed. "What have you don't to my kitchens? This is a complete mess! Master Tenzin, I know you are in charge, but even you can agree that what you have done here is an outrage to-"

"Leave." Tenzin said to the cook firmly. The short, portly woman left. She knew better than to mess with Tenzin when he was in this kind of mood. Everyone knew that. Everyone but Kai.

"Kai." Tenzin said softly.

"Yes, Master?" Kai asked. He knew this wasn't going to end well.

"Very rarely have I ever met anyone quite as infuriating as you are. I have rarely ever met someone so different from me. And definitely not from an Airbender. You treat this all like it's all some sort of game, like everything is just some big joke. And I hate that. I hate that so much. It wouldn't be that big a problem if you were just a student, because-"

"Dad!" Came a worried voice from the door. There was Jinora, with Ikki at her side. "Please, Kai didn't mean it, he was just-"

Tenzin cut off her words with a glare. "Leave." He said with authority. "Both of you."

"But-" Jinora pleaded.

"Now."

Dejected, the two granddaughters of Aang left.

Tenzin turned back to Kai. "Your childish and reckless behavior wouldn't be that much of an issue if you were just a student. But you aren't. Amazingly, you have become more than that. Much more than that to Jinora. And that just might be a problem."

Kai gulped as Tenzin fixed him with a cold stare.

"Kai, you have proven time and time again that you cannot be trusted with my daughter. I refuse to put her heart, even her life in danger because you refuse to grow up. I am considering banishing you from my teachings for good."

Kai felt like something was breaking inside of him. He couldn't lose this, he just couldn't. not like this. He couldn't lose everything he had gained here, with these people. Why had he been so stupid?

"No." Kai said to Tenzin. "No. You are wrong." He slowly got to his feet. "You were right about a lot of things. I am just a stupid kid. I do mess a lot of things up. I'm a horrible student, and you have every right to kick me out of here. But if you think you can't trust me with Jinora then you are crazy."

Tenzin's muddy eyebrow raised. "You think so? You think I should trust you with my daughter after you've proven to be incapable of taking care of anything else? How dare you."

"Master Tenzin." Kai said, looking his teacher in the eyes. "Look at me. What do I have? Nothing. I have absolutely nothing. I barely have any friends. I have nothing going for me in my life. I am a failure at everything, even Airbending. I have nothing. Except one thing. I have Jinora."

His head fell onto Tenzin's shoulder, and tears began to well from his eyes. "Please believe me, Master Tenzin. She is all that matters. She is everything. I would do anything to protect her, anything to make her happy. She is all that I have and I am going to make sure that I am never ever going to lose that. Master Tenzin, you have your wife. Your kids. Korra. Mako and Bolin. The Beifongs. And all of these Airbenders. Tons of people that you care about and that care about you. People that you are responsible for. And you do an amazing job with it. You manage to take care of everyone, put all the people you care about before yourself. Well I just have one, and it's your daughter. Surely if you can take care of all of those people, I might be able to take care of one. Especially when that one is everything to me. She's everything."

Tenzin was taken aback. He hadn't expected such an answer from Kai. But he could definitely understand how Kai felt about the matter. If he hadn't been certain before, now he knew for sure that Kai truly loved Jinora. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to keep him around after all.

"Kai, maybe we aren't as different as I thought." Tenzin told the boy softly. "After all, we do have one thing in common."

Kai smiled at Tenzin, wiping away his tears with his sleeve. "That we are both Airbenders?"

Tenzin chuckled. "True, but I meant that we both care about Jinora more than anything."

"So does this mean you still want me around?"

Tenzin sighed. "I guess we can keep you around for now. You can't cause to much trouble."

Tenzin didn't know how much misery and headaches this decision had brought him, but it would definitely be worth it if it kept Jinora happy. He just wanted what was best for his little girl. And he added begrudgingly, so does Kai.

He brought the kid into a hug. "Kai, as long as you are there for Jinora then you've got a friend in me."

Kai didn't know what to say, so he just added a simple, "thanks."

They didn't know it at the time, but their crazy, and at times impossible friendship would actually last, decades longer than both Kai and Tenzin would have other thought.


End file.
